Tobacco – State of Healthhttps://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth
KQED Public Media for Northern CAThu, 08 Dec 2016 19:25:40 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2Buying Tobacco or E-Cigarettes in California? You Need to be 21https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/06/09/buying-tobacco-or-e-cigarettes-in-california-you-need-to-be-21/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/06/09/buying-tobacco-or-e-cigarettes-in-california-you-need-to-be-21/#respondThu, 09 Jun 2016 23:29:19 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=196103Effective today, the legal age to buy tobacco products– including e-cigarettes — in California is now 21 years old.

For 144 years the legal age to buy tobacco in California was 18. But a package of anti-tobacco bills moved through the legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown signed five of them last month.

The intent of the higher age is to get tobacco products out of the hands of teenagers. Many 18-year-olds are in high school and can share their lawfully-purchased cigarettes with those too young to buy.

Moving the tobacco age to 21 moves legal purchasers out of the orbit of teens. An Institute of Medicine analysis last year concluded that raising the tobacco age to 21 nationwide would result in a 12 percent drop in the number of teen and young adult smokers.

An estimated 240,000 18- to 20-year-olds use tobacco products.

In a press conference Thursday morning, the California Department of Public Health announced an education program targeted at vape shops and tobacco retailers.

“Our goal is to help retailers comply with these important new laws governing the sale of tobacco products,” said Dr. Karen Smith, director of the health department.

Smith also pointed out that 70 percent of tobacco retailers also sell alcohol, and now the age of sale for tobacco matches that of alcohol products.

The food and drug branch of the health department oversees enforcement of tobacco control. The Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement Act, commonly known as the Stake Act, has netted a significant drop in illegal sales of tobacco to minors.

Smith said that in 1995 one in three California stores illegally sold tobacco products to minors under age 18. “In 2015, it was just one in 13 stores violating the law,” Smith said.

Active members of the United States military are exempt from the new law and can still purchase tobacco at 18 with military-issued ID.

Also effective today — e-cigarettes are subject to the same smoke-free laws traditional cigarettes are. So, wherever cigarettes can’t be smoked, e-cigarettes can’t be used either. This includes hookah products as well.

The only indoor places where smoking is allowed are “tobacco-only retailers.” These are businesses that sell only tobacco. Use of tobacco products would not be permitted, for example, in a business that sells tobacco along with food and drinks.

Smith said that success in the implementation of the new laws would mean fewer people under age 21 are smoking.

“We really do want to save lives,” she said.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/06/09/buying-tobacco-or-e-cigarettes-in-california-you-need-to-be-21/feed/0Move to Triple California’s Tobacco Tax Appears Headed to Ballothttps://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/16/move-to-triple-californias-tobacco-tax-appears-headed-to-ballot/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/16/move-to-triple-californias-tobacco-tax-appears-headed-to-ballot/#respondMon, 16 May 2016 18:07:05 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=185280A well-financed campaign backed by billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, medical groups and organized labor said Monday that it collected more than 1 million signatures for a ballot measure to raise California’s cigarette tax by $2 a pack.

Steyer and other leaders of the Save Lives California coalition delivered boxes of petitions to the San Diego County of Registrar of Voters office and will do the same at county offices throughout the state in coming days in its bid to raise the tax to $2.87 a pack.

If 585,407 signatures are verified, the proposed state constitutional amendment would appear on an increasingly crowded Nov. 8 ballot alongside proposals to overturn a ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery stores and require actors to use condoms in adult films.

The announcement came less than a month after Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation to make California the second state in the nation, following Hawaii, to raise the legal age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21. Beginning June 9, it will be a crime to sell or give tobacco to anyone under 21 — except military personnel.

The tax increase would apply to electronic cigarettes and other products with tobacco or nicotine. The measure calls for proceeds to be spent on Medi-Cal — the state’s version of Medicaid — along with anti-smoking campaigns and medical research.

Steyer, a former hedge fund manager who has contributed $1 million, said at a news conference that the campaign is personal because his mother had a three-pack-a-day habit and died of lung cancer 14 years ago.

“I think everybody in California has a family member, a close friend, whose lives have been tragically affected by tobacco … This is going to make smokers pay their fair share,” he said.

The increase would make California’s cigarette tax the ninth-highest in the nation, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an advocacy group. (Right now, California ranks 36th.)New York has the nation’s highest state tax at $4.35 a pack, and Virginia is lowest at 30 cents.

The weighted average cost for pack of cigarettes is $5.96 nationwide. The highest combined state-local tax rate is $6.16 in Chicago, with New York City second at $5.85 per pack.

The average per-pack cost in California, which prohibits local cigarette taxes, is about $5.50, said Debra Kelley, advocacy director of the American Lung Association. The $2-a-pack increase would raise that to about $7.50 if cigarette makers pass along the full amount to consumers.

David Sutton, a spokesman for tobacco company Altria Group Inc., said it opposes large targeted tobacco and e-vapor taxes. Altria is reviewing the California initiative and considering its options, he said.

The American Vaping Association said it would work to defeat the measure but was undecided how much it would spend.

“Public health benefits every time a smoker switches to vaping,” said George Conley, the group’s president. “By recklessly campaigning to equate the taxes on deadly cigarettes with smoke-free vapor products, it is clearer than ever that so called ‘anti-smoking’ activists have officially gone off the rails.”

Backers of the tax increase contend that vaping lures young people to smoking tobacco.

The tobacco tax campaign reported this month that it spent $2.8 million during the first three months of the year and had more than $4 million in cash on hand. Major backers include the California Medical Association, California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, and the Service Employees International Union.

Seven measures have collected enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot in the state, and an eighth — placed by the Legislature — would repeal prohibitions on multilingual instruction in public schools.

The tobacco tax joins four other measures, including a proposal to legalize recreational use of marijuana, that are pending signature verification.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/16/move-to-triple-californias-tobacco-tax-appears-headed-to-ballot/feed/0UCSF Study: Smokers Quit and Health Care Costs Drop — in Next Yearhttps://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/11/ucsf-study-smokers-quit-and-health-care-costs-drop-in-next-year/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/11/ucsf-study-smokers-quit-and-health-care-costs-drop-in-next-year/#respondWed, 11 May 2016 13:45:11 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=182687When smoking rates decline, health care spending declines, too, and fast. An analysis from researchers at UC San Francisco finds that if 10 percent of smokers nationwide quit, it would save a whopping $63 billion in national health care costs the next year.

Stan Glantz, a professor of medicine at UCSF and director of its Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, was co-author of the study, which found that a 10 percent decline in both prevalence of smoking and per-person cigarette consumption would save one percent of total health care cost.

“That doesn’t sound like much,” said Glantz, “but the amount of money that our society spends on health care costs is gigantic, so if you can cut that by a percent, that’s a big effect.”

Research has long shown that smoking cessation saves money in the long run, but this study focused on year-over-year savings.

UCSF scientists conducted a state-by-state comparison of smoking prevalence and health care costs, compared to the national smoking rate.

In California the smoking rate is 11-12 percent compared to 17 percent nationally. The state’s smoking rate is lower, Glantz said, because of California’s long history of anti-smoking campaigns and clean indoor air policies (which were strengthened last week when Gov. Jerry Brown signed five anti-tobacco bills into law. )

In addition, Californians who do smoke are smoking less than the national average, Glantz said. “When you put those together, California’s saving about $15 billion a year in medical costs, every year.”

California’s annual health care spending, public and private, was about $230 billion in 2009, according to the California HealthCare Foundation.

While the risks for some diseases, like smoking-related cancers, develop over years, risks for other disease drop quickly after smoking cessation. The risk of heart attack and stroke drop by “about half in the first year after smoking cessation,” the authors write.

It’s all those heart attacks and strokes that don’t happen, and other health risks avoided, such as asthma attacks, that save money. Those savings “grow with time,” Glantz said, “by the reduced costs of not having to take care of the ongoing chronic illnesses which are generated” by smoking.

The researchers also calculated the excess cost for states that have a smoking rate above the national average.

The analysis has crucial policy implications, Glantz believes, since state lawmakers are often focused on balancing next year’s budget.

“What we’re showing is it’s not 20 years from now,” he said, “it’s next year that you start to see these (savings), and of course they grow with time.”

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/11/ucsf-study-smokers-quit-and-health-care-costs-drop-in-next-year/feed/0How Tobacco Actions by California and FDA Reinforce Each Otherhttps://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/05/how-tobacco-actions-by-california-and-fda-reinforce-each-other/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/05/how-tobacco-actions-by-california-and-fda-reinforce-each-other/#respondThu, 05 May 2016 23:47:22 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=180871Last night, California’s governor signed into law a package of sweeping tobacco regulations.

This morning, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) handed down its own landmark regulations on e-cigarettes.

What’s the difference?

First, no, they do not overlap. The FDA and the states have distinct regulatory authority.

FDA Regulations

Starting with the FDA: E-cigarettes had been largely unregulated. The liquid nicotine product was “of varying quality and unknown provenance,” says the New York Times.

Now, producers of e-cigarettes will have to provide the FDA with a detailed list of the ingredients in their products, and information about the manufacturing process.

The five bills signed last night by Gov. Brown have to do with who can buy tobacco/e-cigarettes and where they can use them.

While the federal government sets the age to buy tobacco at 18, states may raise the age. (Lowering it would likely be pretty tough.) California has become the second state, after Hawaii, to raise it to 21.

The goal with this change is to get cigarettes out of the hands of young teens. Plenty of kids 15 to 17 years old have friends who are 18 and can illegally buy cigarettes for them. But not as many young teens have friends who are 21.

A second major bill will require that e-cigarettes be regulated as tobacco products, meaning that you will need to be 21 to buy e-cigarettes. In addition, e-cigarette use will not be permitted anywhere that traditional cigarette use is not allowed.

“What our bill does specifically is bring e-cigarettes,” says Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who wrote the bill, “under our smoke-free laws in California, which determine where someone can use a tobacco product.”

Those smoke-free areas include restaurants, all indoor workplaces, plenty of public parks, government buildings and more.

Yet a third law approved yesterday expands the places subject to smoke-free laws. Going forward, there will be no lighting up — either a traditional or an e-cigarette — in hotel lobbies, banquet rooms and small businesses.

The FDA’s new regulations will take effect in about 90 days, and e-cigarette manufacturers have two years from that date to submit their first application for their devices or products.

But in California, the five laws were initially approved in a special session on health care. Laws passed in a special session take effect 90 days after the session ends. That’s June 9, just five weeks away.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/05/how-tobacco-actions-by-california-and-fda-reinforce-each-other/feed/0Gov. Brown Signs Major Tobacco Bills, Raises Legal Age to 21https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/04/gov-brown-signs-major-tobacco-bills-raises-legal-age-to-21/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/04/gov-brown-signs-major-tobacco-bills-raises-legal-age-to-21/#commentsThu, 05 May 2016 01:33:11 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=180422Gov. Jerry Brown signed a sweeping package of tobacco bills into law on Wednesday, including one that will raise the legal age to buy products from 18 to 21 and another that dramatically tightens restrictions on e-cigarettes.
‘What this means for California is our youth are less likely to be addicted to this horrible drug of tobacco.’ Sen. Ed Hernandez, author of the new law

But the governor vetoed a bill that would have permitted cities and counties to establish their own tobacco taxes.

“Although California has one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the nation,” the governor said in a veto message, “I am reluctant to approve this measure in view of all the taxes being proposed for the 2016 ballot.”

California becomes just the second state after Hawaii to raise the lawful age to buy tobacco products, a move that backers applaud as a certain way to curtail harm to adolescents, and reduce the number of adult smokers.

Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, was the lead author of the bill to raise the tobacco age. In a phone interview, he said he was “ecstatic.”

“What this means for California is now we can know that our youth are less likely to be addicted to this horrible drug of tobacco,” he said. “There’s going to be less addiction to tobacco, [and] we’re going to reduce health care costs and save lives.”

The law, which takes effect next month on June 9, applies to all 18 to 20-year-olds, except military personnel. The bill had stalled for months until a compromise was reached to permit service members under 21 to continue purchasing tobacco.

A major Institute of Medicine report last year concluded that if all states raised the tobacco age to 21, there would be a 12 percent drop in the number of teen and young adult smokers.

“The biggest drops in tobacco use (will) likely occur among teens ages 15 to 17 — kids who can’t legally buy tobacco products in California now but who run in the same social circles as 18-year-olds who may illegally purchase tobacco products for younger friends,” said Larry Cohen, executive director of the Oakland-based Prevention Institute and a longtime advocate for tobacco control policies.

Adolescents are at particular risk for nicotine addiction since their brains are still developing, says longtime tobacco critic, Stan Glantz, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

“Exposing the developing brain to nicotine, which is in both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes, physically changes the brain,” Glantz said. “That’s why the younger someone starts to smoke, the more addicted they tend to get … and the harder time they have stopping.

Vaping Banned in Many Public Places

But Glantz said the new regulations on e-cigarettes may be even more significant. “There’s no question that e-cigarettes aren’t as dangerous as cigarettes are,” he said, “but they’re still dangerous.”

Under the law, written by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, e-cigarettes will be banned in all the same places that traditional cigarettes are — workplaces, schools, restaurants, hospitals and more. And like other tobacco products, users will need to be 21 to buy e-cigarettes.

“The e-cigarette is nothing more than a new delivery system for toxic and addictive nicotine,” Leno said in a statement. “Ensuring that e-cigarettes fall under California’s comprehensive smoke-free laws is critical to protecting public health, especially given the alarming rate at which young people are picking up these devices.”

A study last year from the Centers for Disease Control found that e-cigarette use among middle and high school students had tripled in just one year, from 2013 to 2014.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/05/04/gov-brown-signs-major-tobacco-bills-raises-legal-age-to-21/feed/2California Legislature Raises Tobacco Age to 21– On To Gov. Brownhttps://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/03/10/california-legislature-raises-tobacco-age-to-21-on-to-gov-brown/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/03/10/california-legislature-raises-tobacco-age-to-21-on-to-gov-brown/#respondThu, 10 Mar 2016 19:40:51 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=158363California lawmakers voted Thursday to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21, approving a measure that would make the nation’s most populous state only the second to put legal tobacco products out of the reach of most teenagers.

Before it can become law, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown must sign the legislation, which has already passed the state Assembly. His spokesman said last week that the governor generally does not comment on pending legislation.

Only Hawaii has adopted the higher age limit statewide, although dozens of cities, including New York and San Francisco, have passed their own laws.

New Regulations on E-Cigarettes

The package of anti-tobacco bills would also restrict electronic cigarettes, which are increasingly popular and not regulated by the federal government.

The higher age limit won approval despite intense lobbying from tobacco interests and fierce opposition from many Republicans, who said the state should butt out of people’s personal health decisions, even if they are harmful.

The six bills, which passed both houses, represented California’s most substantial anti-tobacco effort in nearly two decades, according to the American Cancer Society.

“With California having such a huge population, it’s going to be very impactful nationwide,” said Cathy Callaway, associate director of state and local campaigns for the society.

Advocates noted that the vast majority of smokers start before they are 18, according to data from the U.S. surgeon general. Making it illegal for 18-year-old high school students to buy tobacco for their underage friends will make it more difficult for teens to get the products, they said.

Opponents said 18-year-olds are trusted to make important decisions such as how to vote or whether to join the military. In response, Democrats changed the bill to allow members of the military to continue buying cigarettes at 18.

“You can commit a felony when you’re 18 years old and for the rest of your life, be in prison,” Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes said. “And yet you can’t buy a pack of cigarettes.”

Another bill would classify e-cigarettes, or “vaping” devices, as tobacco products subject to the same restrictions on who can purchase them and where they can be used.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed regulations for e-cigarettes, but none has taken effect.

Anti-tobacco groups fear that vaporizers are enticing to young people and may encourage them to eventually take up smoking. Others say the devices are a less harmful, tar-free alternative to cigarettes. They have not been extensively studied, and there is no scientific consensus on their risks.

Expansion of Smoke-Free Areas

The bills would also expand smoke-free areas to include bars, workplace break rooms, small businesses, warehouses and hotel lobbies and meeting rooms. Smoking bans would apply at more schools, including charter schools, and counties would be able to raise their own cigarette taxes beyond the state’s levy of $0.87 per pack.

The Senate vote came just over a week after San Francisco officials opted to raise the tobacco buying age to 21, making it the largest city to do so after New York. Nationwide, more than 120 municipalities have raised the smoking age, according to Tobacco 21, a group that advocates the policy shift nationally.

Hawaii was first to adopt the higher age limit statewide. New Jersey’s Legislature voted to raise the smoking age from 19 to 21, but the bill died when Republican Gov. Chris Christie decided not to act on it before a January deadline.

Anti-smoking groups are collecting signatures for a November ballot initiative that would raise the cigarette tax to $2 a pack and direct the money to health care, tobacco-use prevention, research and law enforcement.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/03/10/california-legislature-raises-tobacco-age-to-21-on-to-gov-brown/feed/0California Assembly Votes to Raise Smoking Age, Regulate E-Cigaretteshttps://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/03/03/california-assembly-votes-to-raise-smoking-age-regulate-e-cigarettes/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/03/03/california-assembly-votes-to-raise-smoking-age-regulate-e-cigarettes/#commentsThu, 03 Mar 2016 22:31:46 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=156299In major victories for anti-tobacco advocates, the California Assembly voted Thursday to raise the smoking age to 21, regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco products and take a variety of other steps aiming to restrict access to tobacco.

California would become just the second state to raise the smoking age from 18, joining the state of Hawaii and dozens of cities around the country that have already moved to the higher limit. The move comes days after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors increased the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21.

Ending months of stalling on legislation approved last year in the Senate, Assembly Democrats said the measure will prevent young people from taking up smoking. Proponents say it would make it much harder for teens to get access to tobacco because 18-year-old high school students would not be able to buy it for their underage friends.

“This will save the medical system in the outgoing years millions of dollars,” said Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg. “It will save thousands of lives.”

A landmark study from the prestigious Institute of Medicine reached a similar conclusion in an analysis published last year. The panel found that if the minimum legal age to buy tobacco were raised to 21 nationwide, tobacco use would drop by 12 percent by the time today’s teens reached adulthood. In addition, there would be 223,000 fewer premature deaths and 50,000 fewer deaths from lung cancer,

Republicans said the government should not restrict people’s freedom to make their own decisions.

The legal age to purchase alcohol is 21 across the U.S., and most casinos set 21 as the age for gambling. In the four states that have legalized marijuana, 21 is the legal age to purchase.

The age to purchase tobacco would remain 18 for members of the military.

The bills also would require that e-cigarettes be regulated like tobacco products, impose new restrictions on workplace smoking and expand tobacco bans to more schools. Counties would be able to raise their own cigarette taxes beyond the state’s levy of $0.87 per pack.

The bills now return to the Senate, which must approve changes made in the Assembly before the legislation can reach Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.

Lawmakers approved the tobacco legislation in a special session called last year by Brown to restructure taxes on health plans.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/03/03/california-assembly-votes-to-raise-smoking-age-regulate-e-cigarettes/feed/2San Francisco Supervisors Raise Tobacco Age to 21https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/03/01/san-francisco-supervisors-raise-tobacco-age-to-21/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/03/01/san-francisco-supervisors-raise-tobacco-age-to-21/#respondWed, 02 Mar 2016 04:31:30 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=155517The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Monday to raise the age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21, joining more than 120 cities across the country, including New York and Boston, in the latest tactic to reduce smoking rates.

In California, Berkeley and parts of Santa Clara County have already moved to put tobacco out of the hands of teenagers. San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, one of the authors of the measure, pointed to a major analysis from the Institute of Medicine last year that showed people who start smoking as teens are more likely to become hooked.

“By increasing the legal age to buy tobacco products from the age of 18 to the age of 21, we will save lives,” he said just before the vote. The measure applies to many tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes.

But there’s a potential glitch. Tom Briant, executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets says California law pre-empts cities from raising the age.

“There needs to be some resolution on these questions, and the best person to do that is the California attorney general,” Briant said in an interview.

Briant stopped short of saying his organization would challenge San Francisco in court, but did say the board of his organization would meet in April and discuss both Santa Clara County and San Francisco’s moves.

It is the Legislature’s intent to regulate the subject matter of this section. As a result, no city, county, or city and county shall adopt any ordinance or regulation inconsistent with this section.

Supervisor Wiener was unfazed. He said the San Francisco law did not interfere with state law and was unconcerned about challenges from the tobacco industry.

“Our city has a history of taking on major industries in the name of public health, in the name of consumers, and winning. And we will do so here,” he said.

The wine country city of Healdsburg was first in California to raise the tobacco age last fall, but declined to implement the higher age, apparently under pressure from the tobacco industry. Wiener said that with San Francisco’s greater resources, the city would prevail in any court case.

Larry Cohen, executive director of the Oakland-based advocacy group Prevention Institute, said he “couldn’t be more pleased” with the supervisors’ vote. The move to raise the tobacco age to 21 is “gathering momentum nationally,” he said.

“Ninety-five percent of daily smokers pick up the habit before age 21,” he said. “So the 21 age is really a critical number” to reduce the numbers of smokers.

Certainly San Franciscans who are 18, 19 and 20 would be able to travel to a nearby city to legally purchase tobacco, but the higher age “would still have its impact,” Cohen said.

Most would not be thinking, “Can I get on a BART train and go to South San Francisco” to buy cigarettes, he said.

The measure goes to the mayor later this month. A spokeswoman said he supports the move and will sign.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/03/01/san-francisco-supervisors-raise-tobacco-age-to-21/feed/0San Francisco Supervisors One Step Closer to Raising Tobacco Age to 21https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/02/22/san-francisco-tobacco-age-21/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/02/22/san-francisco-tobacco-age-21/#commentsTue, 23 Feb 2016 00:43:30 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=151760A San Francisco Board of Supervisors committee voted Monday to raise the legal age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21. The vote of the Land Use Committee was 3-0 to prohibit retailers from selling tobacco products — including smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes — to those under age 21.

The full board will consider the ordinance next Tuesday, March 1. If the measure passes and is signed by the mayor, San Francisco would join more than 120 cities nationally — including Boston and New York — in approving the change. Hawaii raised the age statewide, effective Jan. 1. In California, Healdsburg and Berkeley have both approved the higher age. A bill in the California Assembly to raise the age statewide stalled last fall.

Proponents of the change say that many teenagers access cigarettes and other tobacco products from friends who are old enough to legally buy them. Raising the age to 21 moves legal buyers out of the social circle of most high school students, advocates say.

“This is an important public health issue,” said Supervisor Scott Wiener, one of the sponsors of the ordinance, who said that teenagers who take up smoking are more likely to get “hooked for the long term,” but those who start older are less likely to do so.

“If we can make it harder for young people to get access to tobacco, we will see significant public health benefits,” he said.

A landmark study from the prestigious Institute of Medicine reached a similar conclusion in an analysis published last year. The panel found that if the minimum legal age to buy tobacco were raised to 21, tobacco use by would drop by 12 percent by the time today’s teens reached adulthood.

David Sutton, a spokesman for tobacco industry leader Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, said that the company supports the minimum age of 18 and called the question of raising the minimum age “a complex issue.”

He said cities and states should defer to Congress and the Food and Drug Administration to “evaluate the issue.”

Tom Briant, with the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, raised a different issue. He said that California law “specifically preempts a local government from adopting a higher age to buy tobacco products.” The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported that Healdsburg ultimately suspended enforcement of raising the minimum age to 21 after being threatened with a lawsuit by Briant’s organization.

While California law sets many aspects of tobacco regulation, including the minimum age of purchase, Wiener is confident that San Francisco’s ordinance would withstand legal scrutiny.

“We believe — and our city attorney believes — that this ordinance is very compatible with state law,” he said. “We will prevail in a challenge and a lawsuit by the tobacco industry.”

Briant also said his organization believes that people who are 18 should have the right to make decisions about what lawful products to use. “Since someone who is 18 can get married, can serve in the military, can vote,” he said, “they are of age to make an adult decision whether or not to buy or use tobacco products.”

Advocates of the change counter that the drinking age is 21, and many states set 21 as the minimum age for casino gambling.

A national survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year found that three out of four adults favor making 21 the minimum age for sale of tobacco products — and that includes seven out of 10 current adult smokers.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/02/22/san-francisco-tobacco-age-21/feed/4Native American Teenagers Promote Sports to Tackle Substance Abusehttps://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2015/10/14/native-american-teenagers-promote-sports-to-tackle-substance-abuse/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2015/10/14/native-american-teenagers-promote-sports-to-tackle-substance-abuse/#commentsWed, 14 Oct 2015 15:05:33 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=90092Tj Keeya Talamoni-Marcks walks off the field with sweat dripping from his forehead, as more than 20 other Clear Lake High School students finish their grueling football practice in temperatures that reached over 90 degrees.

Clear Lake’s Cardinals are getting ready to play against Colusa High in a few days, and Talamoni-Marcks, a tackle and guard, holds his helmet with one hand and makes a beeline for the water fountain while limping. He recently recovered from a toe injury, and complains about pain in his foot. Still, he shrugs it off, saying pain and visible bruises on his arms are “part of the game.”

Sports are a source of pride for Talamoni-Marks and his family, of Pomo Indian and Samoan descent. The 15-year-old wants to follow in his parents’ footsteps — his mom was a basketball star and his dad “running back of the year” at Clear Lake High, the only high school in Lakeport, about 120 miles north of San Francisco.

“Sports keep me away from drugs and alcohol. They keep me healthy,” he says. “I want to get other Natives healthier too, and I think sports could be the way.”

His teammate and childhood friend, Rodrigo Lupercio, agrees heartily.

For both teenagers, sports have become an inspiration to tackle a bigger challenge than any football match: substance abuse among Pomo Indian communities in Lake County.

Nationwide, Native Americans are more likely to die of alcohol-related causes such as chronic liver disease and fatal motor crashes involving alcohol than any other ethnic group in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control. Native Americans also have very high rates of cigarette smoking compared to whites, blacks, Hispanics or Asians.

Lupercio, from the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, has witnessed the toll of alcohol and tobacco use on his grandfather. The two are very close. They used to play baseball and “always have a good time” together, he says. But now, Lupercio, just 14, fears the worst.

“He shakes a lot and has a hard time walking. Because he drank so much throughout all of his life, it became part of his system. He needs it,” said Lupercio. “It makes me sad because I know I won’t be seeing him in a couple of years.”

Talamoni-Marcks tries to convince his mother to quit smoking after seeing another smoker, his former karate teacher, have to breathe through a hole in his throat. The lesson?

“I don’t think I would ever,” he says of smoking. “I hate it. (My mother) is addicted to it, and I hate to see her like that.”

Last summer, the two teenagers took their views on addiction a step further. As part of their applications to a native youth health summit in Washington, D.C., they wrote essays on ways to improve the health of their communities.

The National Indian Health Board, a non-profit representing tribal governments organizing the summit, selected them along with 28 others to meet with staff members for the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and discuss their ideas.

Lupercio spoke of seeking greater participation in sports at the Big Valley Rancheria, the reservation where he’s spent most of his life.

“Down in the reservation, I’d say all Indians should have their own sports teams. I think that would get them active, and they wouldn’t want to do drugs. They’d just want to just do sports,” he said.

“Give them water rather than beer, don’t let them smoke there. And just have a fun game, while keeping healthy,” said Talamoni-Marcks.

The teenagers also want a rehab and wellness center for youth and adults within their tribal communities, and greater educational opportunities that will lead to better jobs. The unemployment rate for Native Americans was almost double the national rate in 2013, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Talamoni-Marcks and Lupercio hope their meeting in Washington with the Senate staffers will eventually bring much needed resources to change the health outcomes in their communities. They believe that advocacy can make a difference. But if that takes too long, they dream of another path that does not involve the federal budget.

“I want to play professional sports to help my family, to help my community, to come back and donate money while doing stuff I love to do,” said Talamoni-Marcks.

For Lupercio, who wants to become a professional football player, the most important thing now is emotional support for his grandfather.

“I just want to say, ‘I love you grandpa, and you’ll always be in my heart,’ ” he said.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2015/10/14/native-american-teenagers-promote-sports-to-tackle-substance-abuse/feed/3IMG_9368Rodrigo Lupercio plays football, basketball and baseball at Clear Lake High. He says more physical activity through sports at Indian reservations could decrease substance abuse.California Bills to Regulate E-Cigarettes, Raise Smoking Age, Stallhttps://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2015/07/09/california-bills-to-regulate-e-cigarettes-raise-smoking-age-stall/
https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2015/07/09/california-bills-to-regulate-e-cigarettes-raise-smoking-age-stall/#commentsThu, 09 Jul 2015 17:40:17 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=45939SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Two California bills aimed at curbing youth smoking by regulating e-cigarettes and boosting the smoking age to 21 have stalled in committee, with one lawmaker even rejecting his own measure after it was revised.

Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, renounced his bill Wednesday when the Committee on Governmental Organization scrapped its key provision that would have regulated electronic cigarettes as tobacco products. Leno angrily told the committee the diluted version of SB 140 will do nothing to protect the young people who are becoming hooked on e-cigarettes.

“I cannot support it any longer. I disassociate myself from it,” said Leno, claiming the committee was fooling itself by claiming that devices which deliver doses of nicotine through a flavored vapor solution should not be defined as tobacco.

Adult smoking rates are at an all-time low, but e-cigarettes are experiencing an explosion in popularity, particularly among young people. For the first time in 2014, more teens reported using e-cigarettes than traditional cigarettes, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Scores of small business owners and e-cigarette users cheered the outcome, quickly pointing out that they were the ones who stood up and opposed the bill and not large tobacco companies.

“It’s a victory for small businesses across this state that do not want to be associated with the tobacco industry,” said Gregory Conley, who testified against the bill as president of the American Vaping Association.

But for many lawmakers, Big Tobacco was the elephant in the room. Though notably absent from the hearing, tobacco companies Altria and R.J. Reynolds have donated to over half of the members serving on the committee.

Altria spokesman David Sutton did not answer questions about company contributions to individual lawmakers on the committee.

Though currently considered behind the game, major tobacco companies are expected to overtake 75 percent of the e-cigarette market in the next 10 years.

Members of the committee who supported the bill as amended said the state should hold off as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers a national policy.

“I’m not sure I’m there yet on the definition,” said Sen. Henry Perea, D-Fresno, who voted for the amendments after noting pending federal developments.

The FDA is currently weighing regulations that would subject e-cigarettes and related products to a mandatory federal review and require that packages carry health warnings.

Leno’s original bill would have banned the use of e-cigarettes in California restaurants, hospitals and public transportation. Vendors would need to apply to the state for a license and would be subject to new state taxes.

The bill to increase the legal smoking age also stalled when the author yanked it from the agenda shortly before it was scheduled to go before the Committee on Governmental Organization. Democratic Sen. Ed Hernandez of La Puente said he lacked the votes needed to move the bill forward.

“Big Tobacco is following their usual playbook and trying to kill this bill quietly in committee,” he said in a statement. He vowed to continue working on the bill this year.

SB 151 would make California just the second state after Hawaii to raise the minimum smoking age from 18 to 21.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, signed legislation last month bumping his state’s smoking age, joining New York City with the highest age restriction in the country.

A bill by state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, stopped short of labeling e-cigarettes as tobacco products and still failed to pass the Senate last month. A 2013 bill that aimed to restrict their use in public places was watered down and eventually died.

California banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors in 2010.

]]>https://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2015/07/09/california-bills-to-regulate-e-cigarettes-raise-smoking-age-stall/feed/1Berkeley Bans Sale of E-Cigarettes and Flavored Tobacco Near Parks, Schoolshttp://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/05/13/berkeley-bans-sale-of-e-cigarettes-and-flavored-tobacco-near-parks-schools
Wed, 13 May 2015 17:53:23 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/?p=27046Berkeley is moving ahead to ban the sale of e-cigarettes and flavored tobacco products within 1,000 feet of parks or schools.

But after hearing from numerous business owners Tuesday night who said they'd fold without tobacco sales, the City Council dialed back a proposal to ban all tobacco sales in those ...read more]]>

Berkeley is moving ahead to ban the sale of e-cigarettes and flavored tobacco products within 1,000 feet of parks or schools.

But after hearing from numerous business owners Tuesday night who said they’d fold without tobacco sales, the City Council dialed back a proposal to ban all tobacco sales in those …read more

The sugar industry worked to steer federal health research, a report released Monday revealed.

As State of Health reported, newly uncovered industry documents dating to the1960s showed that the sugar industry influenced the National Institute of Dental Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, away from looking at research to determine strategies to encourage people to eat less sugar.

“What this shows is that sugar interests were running science manipulation in as sophisticated a manner as ‘big tobacco’ was back in the ’50s and ’60s,” said UCSF Professor Stan Glantz, a co-author of the study and longtime anti-tobacco advocate.

Earlier today, Glantz sent me a short but pointed follow that he posted on the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control, Research and Education website.

It is challenging for the current Sugar Association staff to comment directly on documents and events that allegedly occurred before and during Richard Nixon’s presidency, given the staff has changed entirely since the 1970s. However, we are confused as to the relevance of attempts to dredge up history when decades of modern science has provided answers regarding the role of diet in the pathogenesis of dental caries… A combined approach of reducing the amount of time sugars and starches are in the mouth, drinking fluoridated water, and brushing and flossing teeth, is the most effective way to reduce dental caries. [Time shortened the statement for brevity]

In his post, Glantz then noted: “This sounds simliar to the statement from Brown and Williamson Tobacco put out in 1995 in response to our first papers based on tobacco industry documents:”

Lifting single phrases or sentences from 30 year-old documents and using that information to distort and misrepresent B&W’s position on a number of issues is clearly what is occurring … We continue to believe that nicotine is not addictive because over 40 million Americans have quit smoking, 90 percent of them without any help at all.

State lawmakers want to raise the legal smoking age in California from 18 to 21, arguing the change would reduce smoking rates overall and lower health care costs associated with tobacco use.

State Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) introduced Senate Bill 151 on Thursday, saying the new legislation would increase protection for kids under 18 as well.

“It is much easier for someone who is 17 to get cigarettes from a friend who is 18,” he said. “Someone who is 21 is more likely to be in the workforce or in college, and unlikely to have a younger set of friends.”

Studies show that 90 percent of current smokers tried their first cigarette before turning 18. About 95 percent tried smoking before age 21.

“The ages between 18 to 21 are such a critical period because that’s when a lot of smokers move from that experimental smoking period to being regular, daily smokers,” said Lindsey Freitas, senior director at the American Lung Association in California.

If passed, California would be the first state in the country to raise the minimum smoking age to 21. New York City and Healdsburg (Sonoma County) have done so on the municipal level.

Several states rejected similar proposals last year, including Utah, Maryland and Colorado.

Rep. Daniel Kagan opposed a bill in Colorado, saying 18-year-olds are adults who should be persuaded not to smoke, not banned from smoking.

“Do we tell them, you may not do this, we’re going to stop them? Or do we urge them to take responsibility for their actions and treat them like adults?” the Democrat said at the time. “I come down on the side of treating 18-to-20-year-olds like adults.”

Altria Group Inc, an umbrella company that includes tobacco brands like Philip Morris, Marlboro, Parliament and Virginia Slims, did not respond to a request for comment.

The company has opposed past state efforts to raise the minimum smoking age beyond 18, and urged waiting until the results become available from a study by the Food and Drug Administration on the public health implications of raising the smoking age. The findings are due to Congress this year.